Many companies provide delivery services to customers on a regular basis. For example, medical device companies regularly provide standard orders to customers on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Many companies deliver groceries, prepared meals, or the like on specified dates and/or times. As used herein, home delivery should be construed broadly to include both products and services as well as commercial and residential locations.
Other companies similarly use call centers for pre or advance purchase options so customers can secure products, such as specialties or discount items. The purchased items may be delivered or held for customer pickup.
For delivery systems, some customers have prearranged deliveries, similar to most milk or dairy delivery companies, but many of the delivery companies simply stop at the customer's address on the prearranged delivery day. During that stop, the customer is presented with purchase options, and the transaction is consummated. Alternatively, some companies allow customers to prepare a list of items they wish instead of and/or in addition to their normal delivery.
Companies allowing pre or advance purchase typically don't have a prearranged delivery network, but solicit purchases from pre-identified customers. For example, Costco provides members with the ability to purchase specialty items.
As can be appreciated, soliciting the order during the delivery stop may be time consuming and is not overly cost effective. Moreover, it is difficult to estimate and load the proper inventory onto the delivery vehicle without some pre-existing knowledge of what the customers on a given route will purchase. For pre or advance purchase of specialties items, it would be beneficial to have a preexisting estimate of expected purchases prior to acquiring inventory.
In the delivery business, instead of stopping for each customer, many delivery companies attempt to solicit preorders from their customers. For example, a frozen meat company may send coupons or postcards soliciting the customer to contact the company and arrange a pre-purchase. A grocery delivery company may call the customer to discuss a grocery delivery for a particular day. Similarly, facsimiles, emails, and text messages could be sent all in an attempt to solicit a preorder from the customer prior to the delivery date so the delivery company can quickly and cost efficiently drop off a prearranged order.
Of course, with today's anti-spam, anti-faxing, and other similar laws, pre-soliciting orders is difficult and potentially illegal. Even without the legal hurdles, pre-soliciting orders is problematic. For example, when calling a customer to solicit a preorder, the customer inevitably receives the call at an inopportune time, such as, for example, during dinner.
Thus, it would be desirable to develop methods, apparatuses, and systems in which the customer can initiate the preorder contact.